CampaignerCRM Blog

Thoughtleadership for Successful
CRM and Sales Process

Posts Tagged as‘motivation’

How do you motivate your workforce? What systems do you have in place to assure that your team can work through complex problems and find the best solution for your organization?

If you answered with "money" or any variation of that answer (bonuses, incentives, etc.) you probably aren't alone. Conventional economic and business wisdom for years has stated that if you want workers to work hard through complex problems, dangling some cash in front of them was the best way to get to the best solution.

"As long as the task involved only mechanical skill, bonuses worked as they would be expected," Pink explains. "The higher the pay the better performance. But once the task called for even rudimentary cognitive skill, a larger reward led to poorer performance."

It's important to note that Dan Pink isn't suggesting that money is useless as a motivator, just that employees should be paid enough to take the issue of money off the table. This makes sense. I'm sure most of us have at some point in time experienced stress in our lives related to money that has interfered with our workday. You may be experiencing it even now. Paying employees enough to take away this concern is essential, especially in a down economy.

But beyond that, Pink says that research has found that money and monetary incentives are in fact quite a lousy motivator.

I would suspect (and hope) that most of you reading this have a job that requires rudimentary cognitive skill. So what can we take away from this research?

Motivation is a key factor in succeeding in business, regardless of your industry. As an Editor of EyesOnSales.com, I have come across hundreds of articles that stress the importance of motivation. But most of this advice never goes beyond the personal level, or what a sales rep or manager can do to ensure that they'll keep their focus and work hard. I don't recall a lot of advice focusing on creating a motivational work environment that harnesses the right energies to bring the best ideas out of their workforce.

Pink describes three areas essential to motivating a workforce: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Autonomy means the desire to feel self-directed and feel a certain ownership over the work they perform. Sounds simple enough, but when the going gets tough at organizations many times you’ll see a management “clampdown” that leaves workers feeling anything but autonomous. Facing the pressure of declining revenues, managers might unknowingly double-down on their employees and act as more of a "big brother" type force that discourages independence and autonomy.

Mastery is the basic human drive to want to excel at certain things. We'd all like to get better at something. Growth is equally essential in any position. Companies certainly have a role to ensure the personal growth and expertise of their employees. As individuals, we too need to remember to take the time to hone in and improve our skills. The limitless resources of the internet makes this a much easier task than it was even 5 years ago, and it takes personal responsibility to reserve time towards self-improvement. Falling into routine is a sure-fire way to guarantee mediocre accomplishments.

The final aspect of ensuring a motivated workforce is perhaps the trickiest to create, a strong purpose. What's the purpose of your organization? What's the purpose of your role within your organization? If you have to take a moment to think about your answer, it's probably not a strong enough purpose to guarantee your own motivation. The most successful people in this world have a sense of purpose that runs bone deep. Similar to how it's near impossible to sell something you don't honestly believe in, it's even more difficult to sell yourself on working hard on something you don't feel has any purpose.

This morning and this afternoon my entire organization is getting together for a low-key brainstorming session to harvest the great ideas as we move forward into Q4. It's a terrific opportunity not only to find new solutions to existing business issues we face, but also ensure that everyone will come out with a stronger sense of purpose that will last into the months ahead. I consider myself fortunate to work for an organization that understands how crucial a strong sense of purpose is for success.

When looking for solutions to complex problems, we're often told as employees to "think outside the box." Maybe it's time that organizations start "thinking outside the box" on how to motivate their workforce to best work through those complex problems. Similar to how Henry Ford's Model T assembly line revolutionized how we saw business in the 20th century, the new ways we discover to motivate employees will likely revolutionize the next century.

It is key to finding those creative and groundbreaking ideas that put you ahead of your competition. And I believe we are just seeing the beginning of companies that are tapping into this energy.

Sigmund Freud identified three major components of the human psyche, the forces that drive a human’s behavior: The Id, Ego and Superego.

At the most basic level is the Id, the hedonist component in which uncoordinated instinctual forces drive or attempt to control the individual’s thinking and behavior.

The Super-ego is the moral component of the psyche, our conscience.

The Ego attempts to exact a balance between the Ego and the Id. The Ego attempts to mediate between the Id and reality, and often times there is a battle. In this battle, the Ego may cloak the commands of the Id with its own excuses, to conceal the Id’s conflicts with reality. If the Id or the dark side gains control…who knows what could happen!

The salesman’s Id is the instinctual drive to get the order, close business, beat a competitor and win at any cost. The Super-ego, being the moral component of the sales psyche, is governed by a company’s rules, societal conventions and the sales person’s conscience.

In highly competitive deals, at the end of the quarter or month, recognizing its own survival, the "Salesperson Id" battles the superego for control. The powerful “Salesperson Id” forces the Ego to fool the Superego, resulting in all kinds of excuses as to why the salesperson would do things that he or she otherwise would not do.

Exaggerations and untruths about product or company capabilities are delivered to the prospect. Non-existent problems with competitors’ may be created for a customer’s “benefit.”

This is where the Dark Side may take over. Things can get out of hand. Exaggerations, fabrications and untruths… If the customer discovers one, that may not be so bad. If the customer sees a trend, trust could very well be lost. Worse yet, the deal will not happen. With credibility gone, the salesman and the company take a serious blow.

When it comes to selling a product or service, exaggerations, untruths, or just plain lies will ruin a salesperson’s and a company’s reputation.

If a customer reveals to a competitor that you or your company exaggerates and lies about something, they will hold it against you forever.

So what can you do about it? As a salesperson, you have to be aware of the danger and risks of lying. But more importantly, be aware of your Sales-Id, that powerful dark side within that tempts you to make selfish decisions.

Every sales person need not only be concerned about a company’s reputation and the success of his or her company but also their own reputation as a salesperson and a trusted advisor. Always remember the truth shall set us all free and always be honest!

This quote can apply to your professional life and personal life. Every day when I wake up, I make a conscious effort to look positively on the new day. We all have the free will to make the right choices on how we handle the tasks and obstacles of our day. Here are the 4 essential ways to keep a positive attitude and achieve success!

1. Positive Attitude and Goals

In order to succeed, you need to set goals that are both short-term and long-term. Once these goals are in place, make a plan of action to achieve them. A positive attitude along with hard work and perseverance is how you WILL obtain your goals, but it's also important to remember that progress is made in small steps. Keeping positive in your mindset is the way to achieve these goals. Do not let the enormity of your goals hold you back. Every step you take, big or small, brings you closer to the end result. Working with a positive attitude will only benefit the process.

2. Health and Attitude

Stress can actually be reduced when you maintain a positive attitude. Instead of looking at a problem as hopeless, approach it as a personal challenge. A negative attitude often causes physical ailments as well, which can result in sick time out of the office and less productivity. Just like diseases, a positive attitude is contagious and infectious. A positive attitude can be the key to your health and longevity.

3. Positive Attitude Affects Customer Relationships

If you understand and believe in the product you are selling, your customers will feed off your positive attitude. Carrying a positive assertiveness into the sales process is very important when it comes to success. If we look at the client as the opposition and feel incompetent in our skill sets we will ultimately fail. When nurturing a relationship with a client, it is very important to listen to the needs of your customer and keep an upbeat approach. People intuitively respond to your attitude and mood. Being confident in your abilities and prioritizing the needs of the clients is a formula for success.

4. Team Work

Try to stay away from negative behaviors and people. Do not blame others for issues that occur. Help co-workers problem solve and never accuse or point fingers. A saying I learned in the military is that you are only as strong as your weakest link. Cooperation with one another, along with everyone understanding their individual role is crucial. A helpful attitude along with a willingness to help one achieve a goal makes a strong team. Positivity equals productivity and TEAM success!

A quick thesaurus search relates the word "fun" to "good", "happy" and "lively". Antonyms include "bad", "sad", and interestingly, "work".

I think that everyone would agree that a work environment characterized as bad and sad won’t be productive, except in the sense that a chain gang of prison workers might be productive if the chain boss is liberal in his use of his whip, and as long as the prisoners don’t rise up in rebellion.

On the other hand, a work environment characterized as good, happy and lively is a positive environment that should lead to productivity. Happy workers in a lively environment are a good combination. (That’s probably why my company had "Taco Bar Lunch" last Friday and why boss brought a bunch of Nerf guns into the office. Unless he is revealing a repressed desire to be a maniacal serial killer, but I don’t think so.)

Does this relate to CRM systems? Sure. Let me explain...

Do you use things that you hate? My dad has a treadmill at home, but he hates it and it collects dust. When I owned a 350Z sports car, I drove it even when I didn’t need to get anywhere – just because driving it was fun.

Employees are told that they must use their company’s CRM system, and they may even understand that they need to use it. The question is to what degree they use it. If it is onerous and simply not fun, they will use it minimally. If the tool is actually fun (or "good" as the thesaurus says), they will use it enthusiastically – more often and more fully – and the entire organization will benefit.

Over the weekend, I was sitting in my kitchen, working on my first cup of java. Like many other sales professionals, I was thinking about the close of Q1 and already forward-thinking to my execution strategy going into Q2. I was also thinking about my team, the constant buzz and the never-ending positive vibe that seems to continue to grow hourly within the CampaignerCRM sales organization. I started to really drill into what the cause of the buzz was: was it the fun, start-up environment that we have (though we have been in business since 2004)? Was it the mesh of personalities that just click when stirred up together in a giant pot? Was it the re-architected sales environment that I just put in place? Ultimately, yes is the answer to all of them – and across all employees, not just my sales team. But there are a few more intangibles:

The Bell Trifecta - We have a set of three actual bells that we ring harmoniously with the size of the deal that comes in. Yes, it's a bit old hat, but the high 5's and “hell yeahs” that echo down the hallway when they ring not only gives the feel of accomplishment across all business functions, but reminds us we have encouraged another customer to take another step in building out a world-class sales organization. And, for what it's worth, even our engineers get excited at the sound because they know the sale was a direct result of the kickass product that they have built and continue to aggressively evolve.

Sales Cartoons - We blew up to poster size a bunch of sales cartoons from FunnySalesCartoons.com that make us all chuckle no matter how many times we walk by. There is some truth in many of them, highlighting funny situations that a lot of us have lived through at one time or another.

Inter-departmental Camaraderie - Our team seems to get along fantastically and it's something that happens on a daily basis. We tell Finance to let go of the "sales prevention" mentality and constantly remind the Engineering organization to continue to deliver us a rock-solid product. Even our "Say NO to bugs" wall art inspires, as it stares them in the face while they feverishly develop new code every day.

The Team Without Titles - It doesn't matter if you're the CEO, CMO, SVP Sales, SVP Finance, or Office Manager – everyone roles up their sleeves and plays the position the team most needs them in.

"Socialist Sandwich Day" - The company buys lunch for all of the employees once or twice a week.

Where am I going with all of this you ask?

My point is that as much as I wanted to pinpoint one thing that makes CampaignerCRM buzz, I couldn't. It is the commitment of our employees and the desire to show up every day to push, continually motivate and encourage all of us in making LandslidCRM in what it is today. Our buzz is contagious and when you catch it – great things happen no matter what the time investment.

As I locked up my office the other night and started to head out, one of the new reps on my team grabbed me and said "Eric, I love the environment here so much that I often find extra tasks to complete before I head home for the night." I thought about this for a minute as I was walking out for the evening. You can't buy that attitude anywhere.

The bottom line: Put some thought into your company culture and environment. Would your employees put forth the extra effort because they feel appreciated and respected? Do you have an environment that breeds excitement and buzz?

I would love to hear from others on what they do to create a positive and buzz-enabled corporate culture.